Kofi Annan said Saturday he had witnessed "gross and systematic human rights abuses" on a visit to western Kenya, where scores more people were killed in the flashpoint Rift Valley region. Nineteen people died in ethnic clashes in the provincial capital of Nakuru, police said Saturday, bringing the toll since Thursday night to 45.
"We recovered nine bodies and nine others died in Nakuru Generen other bodies, covered with arrow wounds, were recovered on the outskirts of the nearby town of Molo, he said. The former UN chief slammed "systematic" rights abuses after a visit to the chaotic west, on the fifth day of his trip to mediate the crisis sparked by disputed presidential polls one month ago.
"We saw gross and systematic human rights abuses of fellow citizens," Annan said in Nairobi after a visit to the Rift Valley, which, along with the capital's slums, has seen some of the worst acts of Kenya's post-election violence.
"Impunity can not be allowed to stand," Annan added. He earlier visited the heart of Kenya's ethnic fighting along with former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa and Graca Machel, wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela.
They are part of the latest international effort to mediate the crisis sparked by the widely-contested re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, who opposition leader Raila Odinga claims robbed him of rightful victory.
Around 800 people have been killed and some 260,000 others displaced across the country since the disputed poll on December 27 touched off a wave of deadly rioting and ethnic killings.
Gunshots rung out from Nakuru's southern slums Saturday, and police fired bullets into the air and tear gas to disperse hundreds of machete-wielding youths who had erected barriers along highways into the town. Mobs of Kikuyus, the ethnic group of Kibaki, had gathered in Nakuru on Friday to avenge attacks by other tribes, including the Kalenjin and the Luo group of Odinga, provoking authorities to impose an overnight curfew.
"Some houses are being burnt and fresh violence (has erupted) in some sections of Nakuru," said Anthony Mwangi, spokesman for the Kenya Red Cross. The general hospital said 162 victims of violence had been treated since the start of the clashes on Thursday.
"Our hospital staff and amenities are now overstretched as our surgical ward only has a capacity of 36 patients but we are currently attending to over 90," said medical superintendent George Mugenya. Annan, Mkapa and Machel toured camps of displaced people in western Kenya who had fled fighting between supporters of Kibaki and Odinga in an area tense with latent land and ethnic disputes.
"What we saw was rather tragic," Annan said. "I hope there is a serious investigation to establish facts and that those responsible will be punished," he added, calling on the government to boost security in the region.
The former UN chief said he and the two other mediators would not stay in Kenya "for months on end" and called on the feuding political leaders to work with them "as expeditiously as possible."
"But even if we are not here, the mechanism we set up will allow the work to go on, will allow the negotiations to go on," he added, without elaborating. Meanwhile, local lawmakers and the Red Cross have called for more security measures to be introduced to keep a lid on the clashes.
"The spiral effect of counter-attack and reprisals is getting out of hand in this area of the Rift Valley and urgent measures need to be put in place to resolve this," said Abbas Gullet, secretary general of the Kenya Red Cross.